The process of issuing cards is a tough one, especially for African fintechs. Beyond just designing a product, founders must navigate complex licensing requirements, negotiate with banks and global card networks, and stitch together multiple providers for KYC, payments, settlement, and compliance.
What should take weeks often drags on for months, with costs climbing so high that many startups abandon the idea altogether. From virtual cards to physical ones, this is why card services are expensive for fintech customers.
Expensive card services mean many Africans are excluded from taking advantage of this digital form of payment. In a way, a solution that makes it less expensive for fintechs and financial institutions to issue cards also improves Africa’s financial inclusion.
How Fintava makes card issuance simple
Fintava was built to remove the biggest barriers that slow down financial innovation in Africa. Instead of juggling multiple providers for KYC, payments, settlement, and card lifecycle management, businesses plug into one unified API.
This middleware removes processors, banks, and compliance, so startups don’t need direct licenses to launch.
This solution brings about speed and efficiency. Fintava’s card issuance infrastructure is 100% faster, 30% cheaper, and runs at 99.98% uptime compared to traditional setups.
Whether it’s a small startup looking to test a new card programme or an established enterprise managing complex payment flows, Fintava’s platform makes issuing cards not just possible, but scalable.
Instead of waiting months to negotiate with banks or networks, founders can spin up virtual and physical card programmes in weeks.
A built-in sandbox environment lets them test, refine, and scale confidently without burning through capital on licensing and compliance. This low barrier to entry means smaller players can now compete on the same playing field as established institutions.
Enterprises and larger organisations also benefit from the flexibility of Fintava’s infrastructure. With support for custom card programmes, companies can issue corporate cards, manage employee expenses, or create loyalty and rewards products, all while embedding payments and settlement into their existing systems. Compliance is baked in from the start, including PCI DSS, KYC/KYB, and AML, so businesses can expand faster without worrying about regulatory blind spots.
Card issuance and banking as a service
Card Issuance Infrastructure and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) are Fintava’s core services. Together, they give businesses everything needed to launch financial products without piecing together a web of providers.
Card Issuance Infrastructure allows businesses to issue physical and virtual cards at scale. With full lifecycle management, from setting spending limits and dispute handling to real-time authorisation, companies can create custom programmes tailored to their needs.
Cards issued with Fintava are also compatible with global wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, making them usable anywhere.
BaaS extends this foundation by providing digital accounts, wallets, payments, and remittances.
For enterprises and large organisations, Fintava provides the flexibility to design and manage complex financial products.
Africa’s fintech sector has grown at a staggering pace over the past decade, with mobile money, digital wallets, and cross-border payments transforming how millions transact every day.
Yet, despite this progress, card infrastructure has lagged, weighed down by licensing barriers, fragmented systems, and costs that lock out smaller players. This gap has left many fintechs unable to offer the card-based services their users increasingly demand.
Fintava steps squarely into this gap. Simplifying card issuance and embedding compliance, payments, and banking services into a single platform, it gives both startups and enterprises the tools to compete and innovate without the usual roadblocks.
As Africa’s payments ecosystem continues to expand, Fintava isn’t just keeping pace with the growth — it’s building the missing infrastructure that ensures the next phase of financial inclusion leaves no business behind.
